


Helianthus Annuus

by Rethira



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Mother 3
Genre: AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 14:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/504708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucas falls asleep after a bit, clinging to Claus' arm. Claus mustn't really mind, because that's where Hinawa finds them hours later, Claus, Lucas, Helianthus and Sunflower all curled up in a big, sleepy pile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Helianthus Annuus

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Mother 3 AU where all the human characters have daemons, like in His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
> 
> Helianthus is the latin word for sunflower.

Claus has to be difficult, so her name is Helianthus. Lucas cries a bit, because they’re only little and he mangles her name a bit; his is Sunflower. Helianthus giggles and turns into a cat. She pounces on Sunflower, and the two of them chase each other round and round in circles. Lucas falls asleep after a bit, clinging to Claus’ arm. Claus mustn’t really mind, because that’s where Hinawa finds them hours later, Claus, Lucas, Helianthus and Sunflower all curled up in a big, sleepy pile. She can’t even tell which is Helianthus and which is Sunflower, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the boys; Claus picks up Sunflower as readily as he does Helianthus, no matter how many times she tells them people don’t touch other people’s daemons.

They’re twins after all, Hinawa reasons, her perfect little boys. Nothing will ever be more important to them than each other, and if the daemons don’t mind, well, she doesn’t either.

~

Claus likes to play a game with Helianthus; she shifts as fast as she can, spinning through all the different shapes, big small big small smaller big bigger biggest tiny. Lucas tries to keep up, but Sunflower says it makes her ill, so eventually she stops. She flops down as a little golden puppy, and they watch Helianthus as she shifts faster and faster, into shapes she never touches and shapes she likes. She doesn’t slow down for anything, and sometimes Claus will say “Stop,” and she’ll be a big Drago or a little frog, and they’ll look at each other and laugh.

But eventually, they wind down and Helianthus slides back into a little ginger puppy and wriggles over to Sunflower, and they fall asleep on top of each other. Sometimes Claus whines because _he’s_ not tired, and he picks them both up and carries them around the house, one puppy under each arm. Lucas never tells Claus, but he follows more because it’s _Claus_ than because he can’t be too far away from Sunflower.

Once, Claus carried Helianthus and Sunflower over to Boney, and they played outside, Boney carrying them around on his back and Claus roundly beating Lucas at tag. Lucas didn’t care at all, not even when Claus picked up Sunflower and stroked her fur all over and made Lucas all shivery and warm.

He _liked_ it when Claus hugged Sunflower. It was almost like being hugged himself, and Claus gave really good hugs; only Mama gave better hugs. _Everyone_ in Tazmily knew _that_. But only Lucas knew how good Claus’ hugs were, so that was okay.

~

When they’re a bit older, Mama and Dad start sending Lucas and Claus out to play with the other children. Nichol sees Claus touching Sunflower and starts shouting, demanding that Claus not touch _his_ daemon, and Claus just shouts back. He doesn’t let Sunflower go, clutching her to his chest as if to protect her, and Lucas can’t help sniffling and wanting to clutch at Claus to get him to stop shouting – Helianthus climbs into his lap and lets him hug her, and that just makes Nichol shout louder.

Mama makes them both promise not to touch each other’s daemons around the other children again. Claus makes them all sleep snuggled together instead, and tells Lucas over and over that when they’re at home he can hug Sunflower all he wants and Helianthus tells Lucas he can hug her all he wants.

Things are better with Nichol and Richie and Fuel after that. Sunflower and Helianthus play together more than before, and Claus gets antsy and loud and angry, so Lucas trails around after him. Fuel still likes them both more than Nichol and Richie do, but that doesn’t seem to matter to Claus; he likes Fuel too. They play fight together, like Lucas is scared to do, and he watches them and contents himself with knowing that as soon as they get home, Helianthus will hop up onto Claus’ shoulder, and Claus will pick up Sunflower, and they’ll play _then_ , like old times.

~

Sunflower settles when Lucas sees Mama die. She’s not a dog like Lucas thought, or like Claus thought, or like even Sunflower herself thought. She’s a little bright yellow cat, small enough Lucas can hold her in his hands, and Claus doesn’t care who’s watching – he hugs her to his chest while Helianthus clings to Lucas. She can still change; she slips between dog and cat, like she’s making sure. She still likes to be a dog over a cat, and that makes Sunflower sad. It feels _wrong_ , like seeing Amber fade away when Mama died, but Claus hugging her makes it a little bit okay.

And then Claus leaves.

~

They’re half a person without Claus and Helianthus. Sometimes Lucas rolls over and expects to find them both still there, but they’re not and Sunflower mews despondently. They’re the times Lucas feels the most like crying, even over the times he goes to see Mama’s grave. But he doesn’t, because he’s not that crybaby anymore. He doesn’t have anyone but Sunflower and Boney to cry to anymore anyway; Dad and Lock are always looking for Claus and Helianthus, and Wess doesn’t care much anyway. Things are different now – everyone’s so used to the Pigmasks and Fassad that they don’t even blink at them anymore.

Lucas still looks away; the Pigmasks aren’t as bad as Fassad. It’d be hard for anyone to be as bad as Fassad, even with the weird animals roaming the forest and the scary bangbanghissss of big clunky metal things.

Fassad doesn’t have a daemon.

Sunflower hates him. Her fur fluffs up whenever he gets too close, and Lucas doesn’t quite know why, but he knows she’s _right_. Fassad is bad to be near, and he’s scared that all the people in Tazmily have forgotten that. He almost wishes he could shock them back to normal, but there’s nothing he can do. All the shocks left in him have been used up already; Mama and Claus gone, no more Helianthus, Dad always away. Even Sunflower settling when he was only nine wouldn’t surprise them anymore. She’s been a cat too long now.

He’s scared and alone, but he has to do something, Lucas decides. And Wess discovering Duster’s whereabouts gives him the opportunity.

~

Seeing Mama in the field of sunflowers is good but scary – Sunflower and Boney are right there with him, and Mama is just _there_ , but she’s alone. It’s the badwrong feeling he gets from looking at Fassad, even though Sunflower is just fine with it. There’s no _Amber_ , and he wants Mama to be whole and complete like she should be.

And then they’re falling, away from the sunflower world and into a conveniently placed haystack.

~

None of the Magypsies have daemons, but somehow it’s not as bad as Fassad or Mama. They seem _right_ without daemons – they don’t need them to balance them out. Sunflower still doesn’t like getting too close, but allows it where she wouldn’t allow Fassad. It’s almost like they _are_ daemons, the way they fade away. It’s almost scary to see that happening to a _person_ , but none of the Magypsies seem to mind. They encourage Lucas even, tell him to pull the Needles before the other person does. So he does – Sunflower cowers away from the Needles, tells him she won’t get too close, they feel scary, but he has to pull them.

He has to stop whatever plan it is the Pigmasks have; they stole Mama and Amber from him. They stole Claus and Helianthus from him too, and now they’re stealing Tazmily.

Lucas won’t let them.

~

Sunflower meows when they first see the Masked Man. She meows loudly and tries to jump towards him, but he’s too far away, and she falls short. She won’t tell Lucas why either, shaking her head whenever he asks, and soon Lucas is too busy to really wonder.

~

They see him again on the snowy mountain, and for a moment, Lucas thinks he _knows_ him – Sunflower steps forward and mews pitifully, but all he does is stare at her and fly away. Sunflower flinches and cowers behind Lucas, and she won’t talk for a long time afterwards. Kumatora and Torakuma both just say she’s probably being silly, and then they have to go and rescue Duster anyway, so it doesn’t seem to matter that much.

The Masked Man is just another daemonless person, like Fassad and the Magypsies, even though it doesn’t really bother Lucas to see him without his daemon.

It’s just like something he’s seen before.

~

There are strange letterboxes full of nothing after nothing, or so many letters, or dead rats. And Claus is everywhere, and he says horrible things, and Helianthus is a big scary dog who chases Sunflower whenever they get too close. Dad says he’s going to beat Lucas, and Lucas doesn’t know why but it’s worse because Lock isn’t there. Only Helianthus is there, and she’s scary too and won’t let him touch her, and barks and snarls and growls, and when Lucas tries to run away from her but falls over, Claus appears and laughs at him.

_I hate your hands on my fur_ , Helianthus whispers to him, and Lucas chokes back a sob and he makes them run and run and run and he can still hear everyone laughing behind him.

He finds Helianthus in a letterbox. She’s a tiny ginger puppy, but when she looks up at him, she’s dead and there are holes where her eyes should be.

~

Lucas cries for the first time since Mama died when the Masked Man zaps them and pulls the Needle. Kumatora hugs him awkwardly, and tells him it’ll be okay, and Duster helps him up and Sunflower whispers, as they’re finally leaving Tanetane Island, that she thinks Claus is alive and it breaks Lucas’ heart all over again.

~

When the Masked Man flies away, Lucas’ heart aches, and he thinks he can smell sunflowers.

~

Porky Minch _does_ have a daemon. It’s a pig, and it’s the fattest thing Lucas has ever seen. Some of the Porky robots have to roll it around while Porky is in his weird machine. It doesn’t seem to be awake. Lucas still doesn’t like it. Maybe – maybe it’s true that some people who don’t have daemons, like Fassad, do bad things. But some people who don’t have daemons do good things, and some people who have daemons do _very_ bad things.

Porky Minch does very bad things. He makes them climb his tower and see all the bad things he’s done – all the bad things on top of bad things he’s done – and then he takes them down, down, down and tells them to reach the final Needle before him.

Lucas could tell everyone all the bad things Porky Minch has done, but only one really matters.

Porky made Claus into the Masked Man. Porky took Helianthus away.

Lucas can never forgive him for that.

~

Mama and Amber are both there. And they call to Lucas and Claus. And Claus hears them.

~

Helianthus is beside him; she’s not a dog like on Tanetane Island. She’s not a puppy.

She’s a big fluffy ginger cat, and she smiles at Lucas and Sunflower as Claus casts lightning towards them. The Franklin Badge shines, and the lightning bounces back.

~

Helianthus reaches Sunflower just as she’s disappearing again. Sunflower cries out, and they just hear Helianthus saying “Don’t cry.”

Claus is still there. He’s in Lucas’ arms, hugging him like he always hugged Sunflower. He talks like he’s saying goodbye again, and Sunflower doesn’t care who sees them; she wriggles between them and he smiles and hugs her, just a little, and Lucas can feel it, warm and shivery like it used to be.

“I’m sure we’ll meet again, so don’t cry,” Claus says, and Lucas shakes his head because he can’t stop his tears. He doesn’t want to be half a person again, he doesn’t want to be half a person _ever_ , but Helianthus is gone and Claus-

Claus is gone too.

~

Lucas pulls the Needle with Sunflower on his shoulder, and he wants, just for once, he _wants_ -

_I want Claus and Helianthus back_.

~

_hey_

_I said we’d see each other again_


End file.
